Universal Scraps Plans for Early, Early ‘Tower Heist’ VOD

The proposed boycotts by theater owners worked, but you were going to wait for DVD anyway, weren't you?

It's been a long, strange trip, but Universal finally caved: after announcing its plans to test a new distribution model, in which they would premiere the new Ben Stiller/Eddie Murphy comedy Tower Heiston Video on Demand just three weeks after its theatrical premiere, for $60, the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) flipped out. They feared, reasonably so, that if Universal found success with this experiment the livelihood of movie theaters would be threatened. Cinemark, the third largest theater chain in America, eventually threatened not to release Tower Heist at all.

And that, finally, worked.

Deadline reports that Universal has finally scrapped their VOD release plans for Tower Heist, after what were apparently extensive talks with NATO. This comes as sad news to everyone in Atlanta and Portland, Oregon, who actually wanted to pay $60 to watch Tower Heist.

Enjoy that sarcasm. We sure did.

In a statement, Universal Pictures described this move merely as a "delay," meaning that somewhere down the line they'll try this experiment again, somehow hoping for different results. Good luck with that, Universal.

CraveOnline will be back with more futile industry squabbles sooner than we'd like.